Green or Blue?

[MauEvig]

So at my new job at the book store, my boss is Irish American and has actually lived in Ireland for a long time. He enlightened me on an interesting fact: The True Irish color is not Green!
It's actually supposed to be Blue! Who knew? I guess people liked the idea of Green beer and stuff. But who says you can't make a Blue beer?
So this year, instead of wearing Green, I think I'm going to wear a nice dark Blue for St Patty's. And if people try to pinch me, I'll explain that it's a misconception.
Anyone want to elaborate on this?

[Andybev01]

All I know is don't wear orange on St. Patrick's Day.

Supposedly it's representative of the English protestants.

[MauEvig]

I've heard of something like that. I just find it amazing how something as simple as color can have such a huge impact on a society or culture. Like a lot of things, colors can have different meanings or representations depending on the culture.

I could always wear green and blue together, at least I'd have my bases covered that way. But I'm only a wee bit Irish, although in the states I think St Patty's is welcome to be celebrated by everyone.

[Murfreesboro]

I'd never heard that. When Queen Elizabeth visited Ireland a year or so back, she wore all green, so evidently no one told her about blue being the right color, either.

Back when William of Orange became King of England along with his wife, Mary (1688), orange became the color of the Protestants. King James was thrown out of England because he had married a Catholic woman, and she had produced a son. Mary (and later, Anne) were his daughters from his first, Protestant marriage. The English would not have a Catholic monarch in those days. Being Catholic was as much a political affiliation as a religious one. Because Catholics owed allegiance to the Pope in Rome, it was feared that a Catholic ruler would subordinate the interests of England to the interests of Rome.

Of course, the ouster of the legitimate prince set up a couple of generations of intrigue, first on the part of the Old Pretender (the baby born in 1688), then on the part of the Young Pretender, or Bonnie Prince Charlie, James's grandson. There was a rebellion in the Scottish highlands in 1745 on the part of Bonnie Prince Charlie which was savagely suppressed by the English, and that was the end of it. (The Scottish lowlanders were Presbyterian and had actually been enlisted by the English to settle in Northern Ireland, but the highlanders were Catholic.)

So that's the history of the color orange--it goes back to William of Orange. But I have no idea about Irish blue. Never heard about that.

[MauEvig]

I'd never heard about the Blue thing either until I discussed Irish history with my boss one day at work.

Interesting history about the color orange though! I think I'll save Orange for Halloween.

[Murfreesboro]

That's what I do! And of course, in TN, orange is the color of UT. We are Vanderbilt fans, however.

[fpost230]

So at my new job at the book store, my boss is Irish American and has actually lived in Ireland for a long time. He enlightened me on an interesting fact: The True Irish color is not Green!
It's actually supposed to be Blue! Who knew? I guess people liked the idea of Green beer and stuff. But who says you can't make a Blue beer?
So this year, instead of wearing Green, I think I'm going to wear a nice dark Blue for St Patty's. And if people try to pinch me, I'll explain that it's a misconception.
Anyone want to elaborate on this?


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70-461

[Kolchak]

I think the gentleman was kinda' pulling your leg. There is a very deep grade of green that almost looks blue, but is still green. That's what he was talking about, but I saw very little of it when I was in Ireland. It's not called the emerald isle for nothing. As Murph points the orange in the Irish flag is a way to say that the Irish Republic does accept Protestant religion(mainly Anglican) going back to William of Orange.

The Irish Republic is very much Roman Catholic so they can afford to be magnanimous when dealing with the small Protestant community that is there. There is also a small but vibrant Jewish community as well in the Republic.

While William of Orange is tolerated he does not have the hatred of the people that Cromwell had during his time as a sectarian leader of England, and Ireland was a vassal state of England.

Cromwell hated the Catholics with a passion that is not really rivaled until we see Hitlers hatred for Jews several centuries later. In the eyes of Cromwell, Catholicism was a blight on humanity and he did his best to exterminate it from the entire country.

Irish nobles were stripped of their lands and forced into poverty and many starved when the cost of food exceeded that of their meager wages. Cromwell thought this was a normal way to treat a pagan type people. That's how he viewed Catholics.

It is a sore subject even today in the Republic. I once listened to an Englishman tell me that he asked an Irishman how long he was going to hate the British. The Irishman said; until Cromwell gets let out of hades. That kind of sums it up.

[Murfreesboro]

Wow, I knew they still hated Cromwell, but I didn't know it was quite that bitter.

I am old enough to recall that it was a news story when the Irish actor, Richard Harris, played Cromwell in a biographical film. I own that movie on DVD today, though I seldom watch it. Cromwell wasn't ultimately very well liked by the English either, of course. It was during his regime that they weren't allowed to celebrate Christmas, the theaters were shut down, etc. Just a killjoy in general, I think.

[Kolchak]

Yea there was that period following the execution of King Charles I by Cromwell and his ruling party that led to England being pretty much devoid of any fun times for a while. Following his death by natural causes in 1658 he was dug up in 1660 after the Royalists returned to power in England, and they had his corpse beheaded and hung in chains as a kind of better late than never get even with the guy. LOL!!

In some respects you can see similarities between him and how he ran and justified things, and ISIS and other Islamic terrorist groups. Going to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[Murfreesboro]

Yep, the Protestant Reformation took some strange twists back in the day.

I think that's why our country enshrined the principle of religious freedom, because the people who settled here were so sick of having wars about it, or having people in authority tell them how to worship.

[Carmen5]

I am Irish and have never heard of anything to do with Ireland or Irish being blue. For me its green, its the colour of many things to do with Ireland but for me its mainly the good luck green all the way

[palacevip]

Well generally speaking, it actually refers to a sky blue used during St. Patrick for British usage, whereas for Irish usage it is often a dark or rich blue which probably why your boss thought to be as green. Although, green is now the usual national color of Ireland, and St. Patrick's blue is still the official color of state.